Unitasker Wednesday: Chef Stack

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

I’m not sure which large site wrote about this behemoth of a unitasker, but one of the big players must have written about it because I received an enormous number of nominations for it this week.

Introducing, the Chef Stack Pancake Maker:

It makes pancakes, pancakes, and only pancakes!

Huh. Now I’m craving pancakes.

(The first to nominate this beauty were professional organizer Gail Gray and Chris from Austin.)

Posted by Erin on Aug 12, 2009 | Comments

41 comments posted

  1. Posted by Christie - 08/12/2009

    LOL… my husband e-mail me this the other day and said that it should be a Unitasker :) Makes me want pancakes now… thanks!

  2. Posted by Rachel - 08/12/2009

    HA!!! This reminds me of the “cornballer” from Arrested Development. . .

  3. Posted by Lose That Girl - 08/12/2009

    Enough for an army! I have to say that now I have a craving for pancakes too.

  4. Posted by Brett - 08/12/2009

    If it has an auto-make feature so you can wake up to fresh made pancakes, it might be worth it!

  5. Posted by Sarah - 08/12/2009

    Wait, you mean I’ve been doing it all wrong with my nifty frying pan?! Well, damn.

  6. Posted by Anita - 08/12/2009

    Mmmm… pancakes…

    I’m with Brett. If I got to wake up to fresh pancakes, it might be very worth it. For one thing, it’d make sure I got up on time every day (as opposed to after pressing the Snooze button 3-4 times).

    The only thing more brilliant that waking up to fresh pancakes would be if this product were a hoax created by the… er… pancake mix industry, to make us all crave pancakes. ;)

  7. Posted by Lisa - 08/12/2009

    CNET’s weekly podcast “Gadgettes” just did a whole episode on single-purpose gadgets; the Chef Stack was the second gadget mentioned! Maybe that’s where your uptick in suggestions came from! :)

  8. Posted by SandyO - 08/12/2009

    I have a picture of this thing going crazy in the middle of the night on “auto-make” and spewing pancakes all over the kitchen. I guess I’ve watched too many Pink Panther movies.

  9. Posted by Splint Chesthair - 08/12/2009

    To be fair, it’s mostly marketed towards concession stand / cafeteria / convenient store clientele, not really a home use item. Looks like it has proprietary mix bags too, boo.

  10. Posted by Jeannette - 08/12/2009

    I laughed out loud when I saw this, but then I followed the link to their website.
    It seems to have been intended as a commercial item, for cafeterias and restaurants. In a place that feeds breakfast to great hordes of people in a hurry, it could indeed be useful, turning out flapjack after flapjack, freeing up grill space for other things.
    Of course, special pancakes — like blueberry — would be out of the question. Once the batter’s loaded in, that’s that.

  11. Posted by Jessiejack - 08/12/2009

    For Sunday breakfast if you had a really large family with lots of kids…..

  12. Posted by Shalin - 08/12/2009

    I heard this on CNET Gadgettes too! :) This would be awesome for a family get together’s, college cafeterias, summer camps, etc.

    All that’s remaining is second unit to apply butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, etc. haha…heh…hmmm…actually… ;)

    –S

  13. Posted by Dawn F - 08/12/2009

    This would be perfect for a large family like the Duggars! Or anyone with a teenage boy! :)

    Pancakes – yum…. :) I think you made everyone crave pancakes today! LOL!

  14. Posted by Jeanne Thelwell - 08/12/2009

    In fairness, this does not seem to have been intended for household use. The banner on the first page talks about “profits”.On of the uses they mention is a cart license that would let you use the machine in a mall or such. A pretzel maker would be a unitakser too unless you happened to have a pretzel consession somewhere.

    I’m not sure it’s really fair to snark at items intended for professional use, or targeted at hobbyists or specialty audiences as unitaskers.

  15. Posted by supersocco - 08/12/2009

    ooooh follow chefstack on Twitter!

  16. Posted by Loren - 08/12/2009

    Up to 200 pancakes an hour.
    Pretty sure I need one of these.

  17. Posted by Ange - 08/12/2009

    Aw, but it’s so wee & cute! And the pancakes are wee & cute! My sons, while cute, are not wee and would love one of these. 200 pancakes an hour? That’s breakfast to boys!

  18. Posted by allen - 08/12/2009

    what the heck? LOL

  19. Posted by lvana - 08/12/2009

    just to be fair if you look at the actual website the target market is small business such as cafeterias, convience stores and coffee shops. But for home use it would be over the top.

  20. Posted by Mitchell73 - 08/12/2009

    Didn’t Ma and Pa Kettle have one of these in their house of the future?

  21. Posted by Rue - 08/12/2009

    My husband would LOVE this because he could make a bajillion pancakes at once. Going to hide this blog from him…

  22. Posted by Ericka - 08/12/2009

    I would not call pancakes the “ultimate comfort food” as the site says.

  23. Posted by Splint Chesthair - 08/12/2009

    I would, so there.

  24. Posted by jhoffpauir - 08/12/2009

    Im a sales person for Chef Stack and yes they are intended for commercial use. Though I think the lighthearted poking is REALLY funny. It does remind me of a cornballer as well!

    You can follow @chefstack or me @jhoffpauir on Twitter if you enjoy fun pancake tweets. If anyone has questions just ask.

  25. Posted by Karyn - 08/12/2009

    The main problem with this, even from a commercial standpoint, is that it uses a proprietary mix instead of any pancake batter. I don’t want proprietary mixes; I want tasty from-scratch pancakes, preferably made with whole grains. There’s a local restaurant that makes tasty granola pancakes topped with real maple syrup. And one of my favorite recipes at home is the oatmeal pancake recipe from Laurel’s Kitchen.

    Yes, I realize that a lot of restaurants do use mixes, but I tend to patronize the ones that make everything from scratch. ;-)

    And this thing may be marketed NOW for small businesses, but with all of the publicity, you can’t tell me that marketing for home use is far away…

  26. Posted by Misty - 08/12/2009

    Pure genius! ;-)

  27. Posted by Brandon Green - 08/12/2009

    That machine looks so kitschy I almost like it. Almost

  28. Posted by Lady in a Smalltown - 08/12/2009

    Love it! It is too bad that homemade batter can’t be used, but it probably has to be a certain consistency. I would have loved this in my college cafeteria.

  29. Posted by SK - 08/12/2009

    Am I the only one reminded of Homer Price and the doughnut-making machine? Can you shut down the ChefStack machine if something goes wrong?

  30. Posted by Larry - 08/12/2009

    OK, be fair. As several people have pointed out, this isn’t a home appliance.
    Before you start sticking a satirical fork in something, you might at least look at their web site.

    What’s next week? A mobile hydraulic cherry-picker for changing light bulbs? Why would anyone want one of those? Maybe if they owned a building with auditorium lighting.

  31. Posted by Lola - 08/12/2009

    It was posted on Metafilter last week, too.

  32. Posted by Another Deb - 08/13/2009

    This reminds me of a Sthneed Factory from “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss.

    You need a Sthneed.

  33. Posted by Margo - 08/13/2009

    I was just heating up the electric grill to make pancakes when I opened up the Unclutterer email. Way too funny and tempting!

  34. Posted by Amy - 08/13/2009

    Even if it IS for commercial use, it’s funny. Why do convenience stores need to offer pancakes??? It’s not convenient to eat a sit-down type breakfast on-the-go. A cafeteria should be able to make them the old fashioned way. This is a xerox machine for pancakes. Crazy!

  35. Posted by Stephanie - 08/13/2009

    You have no idea how much I love pancakes. I would be all about this.

  36. Posted by WilliamB - 08/14/2009

    The French version is much more appealing: it makes crepes. I was doubtful at first and the result is odd because the crepes are rectangular rather than circular, but the crepes themselves were wonderfully tasty. Not quite as good as the old-fashioned way because the machine can’t make adjustments (I like my crepes on the crispy side) but anything that makes fresh-made crepes easier to get has my approval.

    PS – I agree that posting commercial equipment is a bit unkosher. When you make enough, the economies of scale kick in. And there are *plenty* of insane unitaskers designed for the home. Just read the catalogs of Brookstone, SkyMall, and Williams-Sonoma.

    PPS – I’m not saying that all Brookstone, SkyMall and WS items are pointless unitaskers, just that these stores have a large proportion.

    PPPS – What about nontaskers? I keep seeing replica Tolkein’s One Ring in SkyMall – what’s up with that? Although I do have visions of someone wanting to use it as a wedding ring…

  37. Posted by Katrina - 08/14/2009

    Hmmm, it looks like the pancake coming out of the machine is going to miss the stack and cause a mess on the table. Which is probably what it would do most of the time.

    So that’s makes it a clutterer not an unclutterer ;)

    It reminds me of those automatic coveyor-belt-toasters that hotels often have at their breakfast buffets. I wonder if the pancake machine undercooks pancakes as badly as those toasters undercook bread? ;)

  38. Posted by robert - 08/14/2009

    I e-mailed this post to a friend of mine, and he replied with this:

    http://www.batterblaster.com/

    With its unique, pressurized, patent pending process, Batter Blaster™ makes organic light and fluffy pancakes and light and crisp waffles in minutes! And while breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it’s also the most skipped meal. Batter Blaster is fast, easy and fun for the whole family. Batter Blaster makes breakfast a blast!

    Just point, blast and cook!

    Watch our demo video

  39. Posted by Leah Goodman - 08/18/2009

    200 per hour really isn’t enough for my house and it’s a bit big, but otherwise, I can’t see the problem.

  40. Posted by emmy - 08/24/2009

    Wow, I think the Bacon Genie or Mak’n Bacon would go great with this pancake maker! ;)

    http://www.harrietcarter.com/i.....6aaa1fc05/

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/

  41. Posted by paTA - 08/29/2009

    how much it cost ????

    i like it
    i love it

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